Fueled by strong global demand,
The South African major posted earnings of US$877 million (or US$2.19 per share) for the six months ended June 30, compared with US$269 million (US70 per share) in the year-ago period.
“The sales performance was underpinned by strong consumer demand, particularly in America, and by restocking of the retail pipeline,” the company reports.
However, although consumer demand remains strong, no further restocking of the trade pipeline is anticipated this year, and therefore second-half sales will be lower than in the first half. Analysts expect De Beers to achieve record 2000 sales somewhere in the range of US$5.6 billion to US$5.8 billion, versus US$5.2 billion in 1999.
A successful millennium marketing campaign allowed De Beers to reduce its diamond inventories to US$2.71 billion to the end of June, down from US$3.99 billion at the end of 1999 and from almost US$5 billion at the end of 1998. The company says it is close to achieving a targeted working level of about US$2.5 billion. During the first half of 2000, De Beers made two price adjustments, resulting in a 5% increase in the prices of its own gem diamonds and a 10% price increase for near-gems.
Operations generated a cash flow of US$2.04 billion, or US$5.12 per share, during the first six months of the year, versus US$2.77 per share for the first half of 1999 and US$5.17 per share for the second half of 1999.
For more than 100 years, De Beers has been involved in all aspects of the diamond industry. Today, it produces some 40% of the world’s gem diamonds by value from its own mines in South Africa, and in partnership with governments in Botswana, Namibia and Tanzania.
The diamond industry leader consists of two main companies — De Beers Consolidated Mines and De Beers Centenary. The former operates and administers the South African mines at Venetia, Premier, Finsch, Namaqualand, Kimberley, Koffiefontein, Marsfontein and The Oaks. De Beers Centenary is based in Lucerne, Switzerland, and, together with its subsidiaries, handles activities and investments outside of South Africa, including interests in diamond mining companies and in companies that manufacture synthetic industrial diamonds and abrasive products.
De Beers maintains a substantial investment portfolio and a range of interests outside the diamond industry, including a 35% holding in
In total, De Beers operates 20 diamond mines in the four countries, running the gamut of open-pit, underground, alluvial, coastal and marine operations. At the beginning of 2000, reserves and resources under the management of De Beers and its affiliates totalled 2.69 billion tons grading 42 carats per 100 tons, equivalent to 1.12 billion carats.
De Beer’s diamond production in 1999 was up by 1 million carats, at 32.3 million carats, representing (by weight) approximately 30% of the world total of 110 million carats. This production was valued at US$3 billion, or 44% of the estimated world total of US$6.8 billion.
Through its marketing arm, the Diamond Trading Company (DTC), which is responsible for sales within the Central Selling Organisation (CSO), De Beers controls about two-thirds of the world’s US$8.4-million trade in rough stones. Diamonds are sourced from its own South African mines and from mines owned jointly with the governments of Botswana, Namibia and Tanzania. De Beers also buys stones from Alrosa in Russia (estimated at around 50% of that country’s total) and 35% of the Ekati mine production in Canada’s Northwest Territories.
The DTC sorts the stones into some 16,000 categories of shape, size, quality and colour, and then offers them for sale to 125 of the world’s leading diamantaires, known as “sight-holders,” at sights or sales held 10 times a year in London, Lucerne and Johannesburg.
In October 1999, the company announced an embargo on the purchase of all diamonds from Angola, other than contractual purchases from the SDM joint venture between Endiama, Ashton and Odebrecht, and that it would close its buying operations there and in other West and Central African countries. Conflicts in these regions are partly financed by the proceeds of illicitly obtained diamonds, known as “blood” or “conflict diamonds.” De Beers now has no buying offices in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone. Its other buying offices, including those in Antwerp and Tel Aviv, are under strict instructions not to buy diamonds that have uncertain origins.
Invoices attached to DTC boxes have now carry a De Beers certificate that states that the diamonds have not been sourced from areas where sales proceeds could be used to support armed conflicts, the exploitation of children, or the harming or endangering of the health and welfare of individuals. De Beers expects its sight-holders to adhere to the same standard.
For more than 50 years, De Beers has taken the lead in the advertising and promotion of diamond jewelry worldwide. The phrase “a diamond is forever,” penned in 1948 by Francis Geharty of the N.W. Ayer agency in New York, N.Y., is synonymous with De Beers. This year, De Beers will spend about US$170 million on an international marketing campaign.
In more recent years, as other diamond producers emerged, De Beers has, at times, become “the buyer of last resort.” Moreover, the diamond inventories it held to protect the market against volatility of demand became instead the burden of swollen inventories, and, as such, were criticized for being costly and underutilized assets. De Beers recognized that its stockpiles had become a problem rather than a solution, and that it was not prudent to tie up its own money in supporting the whole diamond market.
On July 12, the company unveiled a new “supplier of choice” strategy, designed to position De Beers as being the “preferred supplier” by working with its main clients to build market position and expand demand for diamond jewelry, as well as provide globally recognized distribution channels in which consumers can be confident they are purchasing “politically clean diamonds.”
A new sales planning system will ensure that the right diamonds are supplied to leading diamantairies so that they can be marketed and distributed most efficiently. The result will be a greater focus by the industry on marketing and branding.
The new strategy signals a move away from complete market control and towards being a “supplier of choice” for what the market requires.
“There’s a huge untapped opportunity for all of us in the industry to grow the diamond business and match the growth rates enjoyed by leading luxury goods companies,” says Gary Ralfe, managing director of De Beers. “That sector has demonstrated that brands are a catalyst for growth.”
De Beers reports that the luxury goods market is growing at 10% per annum and typically spends 6-10% of sales revenue on marketing, compared with the diamond jewelry industry, which spends little more than 1% of its revenue.
“While our core business will remain mining and marketing of rough diamonds, in five years’ time we envisage an industry in which there are multiple and competitive brands,” says Ralfe. “As we have learned from other industries, competing brands stimulate global demand. In due course, we hope the De Beers brand will be one of those.”
Instead of being a monopoly buyer and seller of all diamonds, De Beers intends to be a trader and brander of top-end goods. As a result of the restructuring of its organization and its holdings, De Beers is now able to reconsider the question of whether it might be able to operate in the U.S., its largest and most important market, without fear of anti-trust laws. (The U.S. market accounts for nearly half of global consumption of diamond jewelry.)
This new “preferred supplier” strategy has accelerated the company’s entry into the Canadian diamond industry, with the successful $305-million takeover of Winspear Diamonds, the 67.76%-owner and operator of the promising Snap Lake underground diamond project in the Northwest Territories. The Snap Lake deposit, while still at the prefeasibility stage, represents a potential long-term supply of Canadian diamonds and may offer infrastructure synergies for the development of the Kennady Lake project, in which De Beers has earned a 51% interest from property owner
An April 2000 prefeasibility study of the Snap Lake project by MRDI Canada envisioned a 12-year life for a 3,000-tonne-per-day underground mine, based on a 12.6-million-tonne resource averaging a diluted grade of 1.75 carats per tonne to a depth of 350 metres. The minable resource is equivalent to 22 million recoverable carats valued at US$118 per carat, or US$206 per tonne.
With capital costs estimated at $269 million and operating costs at $94 per tonne, the proposed 1.8-million-carat-per-year operation would provide a 37.6% rate of return and a payback of 2.1 years.
An updated July 2000 scoping study recalculated the minable resource to a depth of 750 metres below surface at 39.5 million tonnes averaging a grade of 1.75 carats per tonne, for a total of 67 million recoverable carats. The total indicated and inferred resources were estimated at 45.6 million tonnes grading 1.9 carats, equal to 86.4 million carats.
In the wake of the Winspear takeover, De Beers has also taken a run at Australian producer
Rio Tinto and De Beers both have a pre-acceptance agreement with Malaysia Mining, which owns 49.9% of Ashton. The majority shareholder agreed to tender a 19.9% block to each company. Rio’s bid is subject to several conditions, including acquiring at least 29.9% of Ashton’s shares.
Ashton owns an effective 40.1% interest in the Argyle mine, whereas Rio Tinto owns a 59.7% operating stake. For the first half of 2000, the mine produced 14.2 million carats, with diamond sales of US$256.5 million. The mine is expected to produce in the range of 25-30 million carats per year until open-pit mining draws to a close in 2007. The Argyle mine produces generally low quality stones that account for about 6% of the world diamond production by value.
De Beers is seeking to broaden its geographic production base, while complementing its production profile by acquiring Ashton’s interest in Argyle.
At the end of 1999, proven and probable reserves at Argyle were estimated at 63.8 million tonnes grading 2.6 carats for the AK1 open pit and 5.8 million tonnes grading 0.24 carat per tonne for alluvials. Additional resources totalled 145.2 million tonnes of AK1 lamproite grading 2.9 carats per tonne, and 45 million tonnes of alluvial grading 0.2 carat.
The joint venture is studying various underground options that could extend the mine life to 2018. Last year’s drilling added about 20 million tonnes to the resource, providing more than 105 million tonnes for the purpose of underground development.
Although Rio Tinto topped its bid, De Beers mailed its offer to Ashton shareholders on Sept. 5. The offer expires on Oct. 13, unless extended.
“Our bid is now on the table,” says Ralfe.
De Beers continues to review its options in relation to Ashton. The offer is conditional on acceptance of at least 50.1% of Ashton’s shares, as well as being able to terminate the existing marketing arrangement for Ashton’s share of the Argyle production on or before Jan. 1, 2002.
In the meantime, Ashton has formally rejected De Beers current bid after receiving an independent valuation by KPMG Corporate Finance that says Ashton’s shares are worth between A$2.23 and A$2.70 per share.
Ashton’s board of directors has recommended that shareholders reject De Beers current conditional bid and await further developments, particularly given the fact that Rio Tinto has announced a higher bid. The valuation report concludes that “the De Beers offer for Ashton is neither fair nor reasonable to Ashton shareholders.” The report also notes that “the prospect of De Beers increasing its offer is considered fairly strong.”
“De Beers has recognized the importance of Ashton to its diamond marketing strategy but has made a bid that does not reflect the true value of Ashton,” states Douglas Bailey, Ashton’s chief executive officer. He adds that with two of the world’s largest resource companies bidding for control of Ashton, shareholders should await developments and not take any action regarding their Ashton shares.
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